175th Anniversary Gala

On July 14, 2007, the Law Library of Congress celebrated its 175th anniversary with a Gala dinner in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress' Thomas Jefferson Building. More than 120 of the most respected and influential individuals in the political, legal, and educational world were present. Speaking at the event were Dr. Rubens Medina, Law Librarian of Congress; Jeffrey Toobin, 175th Anniversary Honorary Chairperson and CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst; and Ted Poe, United States Congressman from Texas.

In 1832, The Law Library of Congress was created when President Andrew Jackson signed the bill into law. Since that time, the Law Library's mission has expanded beyond service to Congress, to include making its resources available to the Supreme Court, other branches of the U.S. Government, the public and the global legal community. Unique among libraries, the Law Library is a repository of legal and legislative documents from around the world, and the most comprehensive, current, and reliable resource of its kind. In addition to housing some of the world's rarest legal sources, the Law Library stands as the primary resource for legal research in foreign, comparative, and international law.

Dr. Rubens Medina is the 21st Law Librarian of Congress, having been appointed to the position in 1994 after serving as Chief of the Hispanic Law Division since 1971. He holds a law degree from the National University of Asunción, Paraguay, and a Ph.D. in Law and Sociology from the University of Wisconsin. Medina also serves as Chair of the Executive Council of the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), an international cooperative information system developed and maintained by the Law Library.

Mr. Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1993, is also the senior legal analyst for CNN, which he joined in 2002 after six years with ABC News. An author of a number of books, his most recent, "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court," will be published in the fall. Toobin has served as an Assistant United States Attorney and as an associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh. Jeffrey Toobin received his B.A. from Harvard College and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

U.S. Congressman Ted Poe is in his second term as the United States representative for Southeast Texas 2nd Congressional District. After becoming one of the youngest judges in the State of Texas in 1981, he continued to serve as a Houston felony court judge for 22 years. Judge Poe’s public punishment approach has been showcased on 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dateline, and international newscasts. He appears regularly as a political and legal analyst on CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, and local broadcasts. Congressman Poe, a former university instructor, serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (including the terrorism subcommittee) and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

The Honorary Committee consisted of members from the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, Congress, and representatives from AT&T, Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Real Networks, Inc., Microsoft, The World Bank, Apple, Sony Corporation and Google. Additional Friends of the Law Library sponsorships came from several individual Anniversary Benefactors as well as Thomson West, Beirne, Maynard & Parsons, L.L.P., Burton Foundation for Legal Achievement, HeinOnline, LexisNexis, Roll Call Group, American University Washington College of Law and Congressional Quarterly. Individuals from these entities were present to pay homage to the institution that serves as the de facto national library and the world's largest law library.